New Delhi, Aug 27 (IANS) The government on Wednesday said it will hold a workshop in Kochi, Kerala to improve the capacity of coastal states to develop Ocean Accounts under the System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA) framework.
The workshop will be held by the National Statistical Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) in collaboration with Kerala’s Directorate of Economics and Statistics (DES), on August 29.
The main objective of the workshop is to encourage the coastal states to create their own ocean accounts, which will enable the development of national-level ocean accounts to meet international obligations as per the SEEA framework, an official release said.
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) released “Ocean Ecosystem Accounts in India: A Framework (A Report by the Expert Group)” on January 22, 2025. The report integrates ecological and economic data on ocean ecosystems, which helps in informed decision-making that balances development with sustainable ocean management in India.
Stakeholders from coastal states, MoSPI, MoES, state departments, and experts will participate in the event, which has two sessions, the release said.
The first session will provide context and an overview of SEEA, the report “Ocean Ecosystem Accounts in India: A Framework,” and global best practices in ocean accounting. This session will discuss data availability for the Kerala coast and the challenges in using these datasets for ocean accounting.
The second session will include a presentation on the report “Ocean Accounting Segment of the Blue Economy Pathways: A Case Study of Tamil Nadu.” The session will cover climate change and ocean accounting, its impact on marine living resources, innovations in modern oceanography, an open discussion and a Q&A session.
Ocean accounting is a method of systematically tracking and organising information about the environmental assets, economic activities, and coastal livelihoods supported by the ocean. This will help governments and communities make better decisions for conserving and using ocean resources sustainably.
–IANS
aar/na
